The vehicle uses lithium ion batteries and features a relatively short 56-mile range. The vehicle itself is very producible recycling Toyota systems, but the interior, pictured here, is rather outlandish.

The vehicle uses lithium ion batteries and features a relatively short 56-mile range. The vehicle itself is very producible recycling Toyota systems, but the interior, pictured here, is rather outlandish.

Toyota may opt not be the only major automaker left out of the electric vehicle market

Throughout much of the Nineties and
early part of this decade, hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells were
billed ad the future
of vehicle propulsion. However, over the past couple years
hydrogen plans have been going quickly from solid state to vaporous
form. With Obama flatly refusing
to fund hydrogen vehicle research and instead focusing government
resources of electric vehicles, and with the Germans favoring
electric (in addition to clean diesel), the Japanese automakers who
invested so much in bringing a vision of clean hydrogen vehicles to
market are left with a major decision.

Just this week, Honda's
CEO indicating his company might shelve hydrogen plans and turn
to electric vehicles in the near term. He cited
frustrations with deploying a fueling infrastructure in the U.S. as a
major cause for considering turning away from hydrogen.

Now
Toyota has debuted a new prototype, raising questions about whether
it may be pondering an electric leap of its own. The new
prototype is dubbed the FT-EVII (FT = "Future Tech") and
made a star appearance at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.

More
rounded and bulbous than Honda's electric vehicle prototype, the
FT-EVII is built largely from existing Toyota technologies, including
the iQ platform and components from its Synergy hybrid system.
The iQ is a platform of small, fuel-efficient gas and diesel vehicles
sold in Japan and the U.K. No iQs are sold in the U.S although
Toyota is rumored to be bringing the gasoline version here under the
Scion nameplate.

Despite trashing
lithium ion batteries in a recent interview, Toyota's EV relies
on them as an integral component of the powertrain. Toyota
still uses nickel-metal-hydride power pack designs in most of its
hybrids, including the Toyota Prius.

An interesting thing to
note about the FT-EVII is that it has a range of 56 miles -- less
than the soon to be released Nissan
Leaf and Mitsubishi iMiev all-electrics, which have a range of
100+ miles. This will likely limit potential sales to urban
drivers. Toyota is reportedly sticking with shorter ranges for
potential commercial deployment. This might not be entirely
bad, as the vehicles would still appeal to a massive populations
living in the world's large cities, such as Tokyo, London, and New
York.

While most of the vehicle's mechanics are very feasible,
and actually close to being a producible design, the vehicle features
an outlandish control yoke and interior design. The vehicle
also features sliding doors, another unusual feature.

"Nowadays you can buy a CPU cheaper than the CPU fan." -- Unnamed AMD executive